Hello folks. A friend of mine asked me, to help him with building a new gaming (skyrim and above on full details etc.). In terms of RAM and CPU we are pretty finished (we are 3 guys helping him with our own ideas). RAM: Corsair XMS3 Series DDR3-1600, CL9 CPU: Intel Core i5 3570S (he is not into overclocking....it just needs to work well) Mainboard: I say a AsRock Z77 Pro3/4 or ASUS P8Z77-V LX /LX2 would be good to go. And not so much overkill like the ASUS P8Z77-V the other one recommanded BUT....now for GPU, PSU and CPU cooling: GPU: ZOTAC GeForce GTX 670 AMP! Edition or EVGA GeForce GTX 670 Cheesecake CPU cooling: is Alpenföhn Brocken2 a good solution? PSU: a field of so much controversal. the other friend recommanded the - Be Quiet Dark Power Pro 10 modular - 650 Watt Leaving aside a 500W to 550W would be enough in my oppionen i would say: - Be Quiet! Straight Power E9 - 600 Watt I know modular is nice, but like i said, the friend we are building the pc for just wants a functional gaming system for the next few years. So....if it would go after me i would buy following parts: Corsair XMS3 Series DDR3-1600, CL9 Intel Core i5 3570S AsRock Z77 Pro3 OTAC GeForce GTX 670 AMP! Edition Alpenföhn Brocken2 Be Quiet! Straight Power E9 - 600 Watt and a SSD (if someone can give me good advice for a nice 120GB one i wouldnt need to do research ) Sorry for this wall of text and thanks in advance for your help
My personal view is that a z77 board is unnecessary if overclocking is a no-go - could save a few ££ there? Sorry for curt reply - just very busy. I'll try and follow up later.
Personally for a gaming pc I would choose a 256gb SSD over a 120gb one if the budget allows, a 120gb is going to get filled up pretty quick. The Plextor M5 Pro 256gb won the premium grade award in Custom PC. I would also choose the Thermal Right True Spirit 120M as your cooler because again it won the premium grade award for Socket LGA1155 cooler.
Thanks so far. Went through some cooling solution.....how good are those all-in-one cpu watercoolers like Corsair H60 or the slightly more expansive H80? Or would the be a slightly overkill?
The H80i is well recommended but personally I think it's overkill for a cpu running at stock, mind you I intend to buy one for my 2500K for the sole reason that my cooler just takes up to much space and I can't use the two empty ram slots I have.
Budget.....well first 1 was 1000€. But after the other friend postet a solution for ~1500€ he said that would be the absolute maximum
An H60 with pwm fans is all that's required for a non K CPU. I second the above suggestions with the plextor m5 pro and downgrading chipset to H77 or B75!
not really any reason to to use a 3rd party cooler and if you do its for noise reasons not cooling performance.
Good to know. Well i think the Z77 comes from me because i am going for an i5 3570K. Maybe thats why And for the OTAC GeForce GTX 670 AMP! Edition and Be Quiet! Straight Power E9 - 600W. Are they good to go? I know i could go up to 1500€ but i also try to stay a low as possible^^
The 670 AMP! is great, and the power supply is a good'un too. Why not look at some of the cheaper ASUS motherboards, if there's definitely never going to be any overclocking (say with a new CPU later, for instance).
non stock basically - if you are not overclocking then unless noise is an issue the stock intel fan is more than adequate and you can spend money on better things. If you were overclocking id definitely get a better cooler but the chips run fairly cool so a decent £30-40 air cooler will cope with all but the most heavy of overclocks. Id also drop the the mobo chipset down if you are not overclocking and dont need the features on the board. 550-600W PSU is a good choice anything bigger is a waste. for RAM just make sure you get 1.5V as the 1.65V is at the upper limit of intels allowed Ram Voltage specification. It shouldnt be much of an issue but 1.5V RAM is the same price so why would you opt for 1.65V ?? Id also opt for a 256GB SSD as generally these days games are 10-20GB of space so after windows is done at around 10-15GB that only leaves space for around 16 games and that takes up ALL the space on a 256GB. 128GB would realistically only allow for around 5-8 games which isnt very many. also what about storage for docs, music pics etc ? these should sit on a massive 1-4TB eco HDD (pending how much data you have). dont want to take up that valuable space on the SSD with pointless files now do we
adam: Thanks for this detailed comment. As i metioned before, the Z77 was still in my head because i will buy a 3570K CPU in the near future. So for the board...B75 or H77 (like atc95 wrote) PSU and RAM i will take a new look later the day. HDD....there will be one ^^ 2TB+ SDD.....i will ask him how many games there will be. If its just a handfull or less a 128GB will do(?) and if its clear that there will be much more in the future I will go for the bigger 256GB. Well....thanks so far I will post a new and more or less final config for your oppinios later. Till then TheP
So....made some quick n dirty shopping tour. Result: http://www.caseking.de/cart_load/4f7071be5cfbe20d791600ac3ab2b9b6 If link is broken here in written form: - Corsair Vengeance LP Series Black DDR3-1600, CL9 - 8GB Kit - Cooler Master HAF Advanced RC-932-KKN5-GP Big-Tower (he wanted it) - ZOTAC GeForce GTX 670 AMP! Edition - Samsung 840 Series 258GB - Intel Core i5-3570 (boxed version so he would use the Intel CPU cooler) - Be Quiet! Straight Power E9 CM 580W - ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP - HDD with 2TB: Seagate Barracuda or Western Digital Green So.....is this configuration good for a non-oc, non-sli gaming pc?
